Sally's World

A couple of friends have told me that the saying goodbye passage I posted may make people think that the book is all like that and a bit heavy to get through. So they encouraged me to post another passage that reflects the lighter side of the book. The kids chose this one because its their favourite!

But, Please, dont judge me until you've been there. xxxx

"Aaron never lost his sense of humour. And we never felt more confident than when he was up to mischief…. Many people made the mistake of thinking Aaron wasn’t intelligent, we couldn’t seem to get through to some people that, being in a wheelchair didn’t make him stupid. I was trying to think of an example when one of the kids reminded me of, “The nights of the whistle.”

My Mum and Dad in their infinite wisdom; bought Aaron a set of musical instruments, complete with drum, tambourine and a nice loud whistle. Honestly I think they were using my own children to get back at me for all the noise and grief I caused them over the years! I think they actually scour the shops looking for the loudest toys they can find. Come to think of it, they do seem to have a kind of smug smile on their faces when they hand my kids their presents!

So one night there was an almighty loud whistle coming from Aaron’s room; I sat bolt upright and stumbled into his room to take it off of him. But, I couldn’t find it, I looked everywhere, I presumed it had fallen down the back of the bed, and was lost. Fine, ‘I’ll find it tomorrow,’ I thought and went back to bed. As soon as I got back to sleep, he blew it again. In I went again, but I could not find this bloody whistle.

This went on every night for a week, I emptied everything out of his room, I looked under his mattress, in every book, I thoroughly checked about his person, even in his nappy, it was nowhere to be found. I was completely baffled.

When it got to the point that I was so tired I was a zombie like; I turned detective, I didn’t do the whole raincoat, magnifying glass thing, but probably would have if I’d thought of it at the time. I put Aaron to bed, made the footstep noises as if I’d gone into my room...oh yeah, I’m good. Then I crept back on my hands and knees to wait outside his door.

I waited for three hours. Even to me this sounds a tad mad, but you have to appreciate how tired I was. If I didn’t find that whistle I was going to go mad, so it was for the good of the family that I sat crouched outside his bedroom door that night.

Then it happened, he blew the whistle! I burst in his room before he had chance to hide it “POLICE FREEZE!” I yelled, “CAUGHT YOU!” The look on Aarons face was a picture, a caught red handed look across his cute little features. “I’m not falling for the cute look Sucker!” okay so I may have got carried away at this point!

Then I found out where he’d been hiding his whistle. He’d picked at the stitching a furry dolphin toy he had until he’d made a little hole, he’d even made it underneath the fin, so you couldn’t see it at first glance. He was blowing the whistle, then poking it in this hole. What a bugger! How ingenious! Even I had underestimated him this time.

Aaron thought it was hilarious; Dave and the kids were helpless with laughter. They told everyone they could think of, and I became the butt of everyone’s jokes for ages! When I’d tell anyone about it, Aaron would sit there with this little angelic look on his face… “Who me?” the look said, with a flutter of the eyelashes.

Aaron loved driving me completely mad with little things like that. Believe me this is just one small example of absolutely hundreds of tricks that Aaron has played on me over the years. How anyone could dare suggest he was unintelligent was obviously very misguided."